The price tag is very likely to exceed $100 million when damage to government infrastructure is eventually included. yet the sum total of the damage is far below what was feared from a direct hit of Hurricane Matthew.

Marineland’s 75th anniversary celebrates past, present and future, highlighting the town’s continued ecological and cultural importance beyond dolphin adventures, which nevertheless play a large role in the town’s identity.

Nellie, the oldest Atlantic bottlenose dolphin in human care, was born at Marineland’s Dolphin Adventure in 1953 and exceeded her life expectation by at least three decades and making an impact in television and stadium shows before she died on Thursday.

When Chris Goodfellow, a retired pilot in Marineland, wrote a 1,000-word blog post debunking many foul-play theories on the fate of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, he did not expect the post to be picked up by media and bloggers around the world, though his theory has now influenced the debate on the missing Boeing.

A 26-foot right whale that had been dead more than a day was discovered south of Varn Park Wednesday morning. Federal and state authorities will conduct a necropsy before attempting to bury the whale in place.

Palm Coast wants to keep the split of the half-cent sales tax revenue what it is today. Flagler County wants to change the formula, which would decrease Palm Coast’s share by $500,000. The disagreement is jeopardizing a unified approach on a sales tax referendum both sides say is critical to their revenue needs.

Despite enduringly high unemployment and a year of fraying rather than unity among local governments, the county hosted an intergovernmental summit Tuesday that piled back-patting on exclamation marks.

The Coalition of Cities is Flagler’s smaller cities’ answer to being snubbed at a larger economic-development table. But the snub is over. The coalition remains. It’s not exactly clear why, and it underscores the frayed political landscape behind facades of unity.

The declines, for the fourth year in a row, will define to what extent local governments must either raise taxes or cut services as they prepare next year’s budgets. Governments have little room to cut anymore, short of vitals services.

Day one of the summit produced generous and optimistic self-evaluations from some 60 elected and had-picked representatives of local governments, but no breakthrough on fundamental differences on economic development financing or leadership.

The economic development summit at the Flagler County Emergency Operations Center began at 5:30 this evening. For background on the summit, go here. For a recap and analysis of the meeting, go here. Click below to follow the summit moment by moment. Flagler County Economic Development Summit

The $9.1 million acquisition from Jim Jacoby–who bought the Marineland attraction in 2001 for $1.9 million–took place just before the New Year. It’ll be run as a non-profit, so Marineland as a town will lose a third of its tax revenue.

Florida has no contingency plan if dolphins, turtles and manatees begin showing up coated in oil. Marineland’s Jim Jacoby wants to fix a blind spot in planning dating back to two Jeb Bush vetoes in 2000 and 2001.